Remember Me preview and interview – total recall

GameCentral talks to the creator of Capcom’s new cyberpunk adventure about female protagonists, virtual murder, and the future of social networks.

Remember Me – unforgettable action

It’s been going on for years really, but one of the big trends we noticed at E3 this year was trailers and demos that went out of their way to pretend their games were more mindless and violent than they actually are. From Resident Evil 6 to Tomb Raider, almost every game played to the lowest common denominator whenever it thought a mainstream audience was the primary one watching.

That says a lot more about marketing people than it does either the games or their players, but it also allows for some unexpected surprises when you get to investigate the games in detail.

When we first saw Remember Me, from new French outfit Dontnod Entertainment, it was in the form of the super slick trailers you can see below. At the time there was very little explanation offered as to what was going on, but as you can see it takes place in a (relatively) near future Paris, where a new social network that records and stores memories has become the biggest company in the world. The game’s protagonist is a female ‘memory hunter’ called Nilin, who starts the story having had her own memory wiped.

As a result she ends up working for a group opposing the network. In the footage we see there is two different gameplay sequences, the first a platform section vaguely reminiscent of Uncharted. Nilin is being taunted by an evil-sounding security chief in a VTOL aircraft and has to dart between cover on top of roof. Moving between chimney stacks she creates a distraction with a wrist-mounted device (called a spammer, we later learn) that activates a nearby fan.

We only realise later, during our interview, that Nilin doesn’t shoot anyone, and even in a subsequent fight with guards it’s made clear that she’s wiping their memories and not killing them.

In the second sequence Nilin is making her way towards a top executive, and after a bit of light stealth and platforming she’s perched outside his office window listening in to him complain about a break up with his girlfriend. At this point Nilin initiates a ‘memory remix’.

This is one of the centrepieces of the game and involves playing through a subject’s recent memories and making minor changes that then drastically alter their attitudes. In the original memory the exec can be seen arguing with his girlfriend, who then leaves relatively peacefully. But Nilin remixes the memory so that a bottle falls off a table, which he then trips on – angering him and putting him eye-to-eye with a gun on the table. He threatens the girlfriend with the gun but it doesn’t go off because the safety catch is on.

The memory is remixed again, this time with the safety off, and the girlfriend is accidently killed. Back in the real world this new memory so upsets the exec that he ends up killing himself for real, at which point his appalled girlfriend walks into the office and the demo ends.

It’s an imaginative and unusual set-up, and together with the excellent visuals and more traditional action sequences it’s immediately clear the game is one to watch. Although it’s only after we talk to creative director Jean-Maxime Moris that we realise just how ambitious it is…

GC:Before we discuss the game can you tell me a little bit about Dontnod?

J-MM:We created Dontnod four years ago, although it was only five people then. So we’ve grown the company from five to a hundred people since then and that’s taken a time, and the game’s only been in actual production the past two years. We were independent, I mean we’re still independent, but we had some private financing and were able to basically do pre-production and then along came Sony at some point, and then at some point Sony went away…

GC:And that’s why footage of the game turned up on thatSony demo reel?

J-MM:Ah, no. Not at all. I have no idea why that happened. I know where that leaked from but there’s no connection from that video to us being with Sony before. So we went to Gamescom last year and presented the game in the form of just concept art and explained the concept of the universe to journalists and we got some pretty good feedback. Publishers then came back to the table, and Capcom was the most positive and respectful of our work and the project.

GC:So just to go back a step there, what does an investor that’s unconnected with the games industry look for in a developer? Are they interested in the quality or nature of the game? What convinced them to back you?

J-MM:Ah well, it was very simple. We knocked at about 150 doors, 150 doors didn’t open. Or opened and then slammed shut very quickly. The 151st one opened and the guy was actually a guy that had the money to invest and when he was younger had someone invest, believe in his idea – just a single idea – and he made his own business and fortune and he just wanted to do the same with us. And he believed in what we were saying, and he believed in the potential of the team. Because we had some high profile people in those five guys that founded the company. So he believed in us, and I cannot thank him enough.

GC:That’s a nice story. So then you met Capcom, but how were they? What were they most interested in, in terms of you and the game?

J-MM:I like to believe that what we had to show was extremely convincing, and I think it’s a combination of different elements…

GC:I guess they were purposefully looking for Western developers to work with back then?

J-MM:They were expanding to the West, actually the time when we got in contact with them was when we saw an article saying ‘Capcom expanding to the West’ and I just sent an email to their business developer, saying: ‘Are you now looking for new IP?’ and in two months it was done.

GC:So you’ve had a lot of luck with cold calling!

J-MM:Yeah. There’s beena lot of work and countless hours of not knowing, but we’ve had some luck too. But you’re right, it was a nice combination of events. Capcom has some very long-lasting IPs and I think they wanted to inject some new blood into their portfolio and we were the perfect thing for them. We definitely have some Capcom DNA, I mean if you just look at the game there is that Capcom thing to it. It’s no wonder we signed with a Japanese publisher, with the cyberpunk themes and the kind of Japanese themes that we have in the game – they got it immediately. They’ve been eating cyberpunk for breakfast for the past 30 years.

Whereas with Western publishers, sometimes it was like, ‘Ah, we don’t get it.’ And then Inception came out and they were like, ‘Oh, we get it! It’s great!’ That was a bit frustrating with other publishers. But with Capcom it was great and I think they are a perfect match for us.

GC:So anime is one influence in the game, but what would you say would be the others? Blade Runner seemed an obvious point of reference, but perhaps Uncharted as well?

J-MM:Well, I love listening to people citing references when they look at the game. I personally don’t play the reference game because it’s a dangerous one for me to play, but all the references you just said… I take them as compliments. Because if the game made you think of that, that’s great. I like to believe that Remember Me stands by itself, but…

GC:That wasn’t meant in any way as criticism.

J-MM:I totally understand and that’s not what I meant. But I tend to avoid comparing us to other video games at least. But in terms of movies, you mentioned Blade Runner and there’s no denying that it’s a very strong influence for our art team. But, that being said, we are a cyberpunk game, we are a near future universe – but there’s much more variety to the environment, to the weather, to the lighting, to the time of day in the game than just what you have seen in the demo – and what you have seen in Blade Runner, which takes place only during the night time. So it’s not just a dark universe, and a rainy universe, there’s much more to it than that.

GC:In terms of plot Philip K. Dick also seemed to be a major influence, with his obsession with memory…

J-MM:Of course, of course. And identity also.

GC:So what kind of story are you trying to tell? So few game stories, even the most celebrated ones, are actually about anything other than action and adventure – but I get the impression yours is trying to be different?

J-MM:So, that’s an interesting question. So, first of all Nilin has had her memory erased and embarks upon a quest to get her memory back. That sounds very much like a cliché but it’s actually…

GC:It certainly is a cliché in Japanese games. Maybe that’s why you got on with Capcom so well?

J-MM:[laughs] It’s a cliché in video games and it’s something I was reluctant to have in the game in the beginning but then the theme being memories, it only made sense. And the way that she’s going to regain her memories, that’s also part of how we tell that story. It’s a little bit like saying, ‘Oh, it’s a love story’. Well, yes it’s a love story and there have been love stories for a thousand years and it doesn’t matter. It’s still together, not together any more, back together. But the question is, with that kind of formula what angle do you take and how do you make it relevant and interesting to people?

So, in terms of who she is and the story we’re going to tell I can’t really say much at this stage but what I can say is that she begins the game in the Bastille prison and she’s had her memory wiped clean. She realises she’s an elite memory hunter and she has the power to break into people’s minds and change them, and in those memory remix sequences that you saw, they carry the most narrative weight.

I really wanted them to never be just a gameplay gimmick, time manipulation of whatever, I wanted it to be so that whatever stakes where brought forward before the remix – whatever situation was within the remix – that what came out of it was a turning point in the narrative.

So that concept of just changing a few details and seeing the differences was really woven into the story. Now, there is stuff in the game that is just there to provide Nilin with a goal and an objective. But every time we try to look at the bigger picture and just be a very story-driven game… now whether or not we do better than Uncharted that is… [laughs] we will see.

GC:Uncharted is always the first game developers mention when talking about stories, but it’s very rare that any of them really seem to understand its success – beyond the surface fact of it looking more cinematic than most other games. To me the most interesting factor is that its main character isn’t a raging psychopath like most video game protagonists, he’s actually a nice likeable person.

J-MM:Although what you do with him in the game is psychopathic.

GC:Yes, quite. He spends the game killing hundreds of people. And yet he’s still the only likeable character in video games despite him being a mass murderer.

J-MM:[laughs]

GC:And he’s not even doing it to save the world. So is Nilin a moral character, does she feel bad about ruining that guy’s life?

J-MM: Well, not only ruining it but making him kill himself.

GC:And a real person would feel bad about that, unless they were actually a complete sociopath. But you never see that represented in an ordinary video game. You talk about love stories being a cliché, but they’re not in video games because we never have them. We have two characters that maybe kiss at the end of the adventure, but there’s no real romance or realistic human emotion. Is your game different? I often wonder whether it’s just impossible.

J-MM:It’s not impossible. But the thing is video games, first and foremost, have you interact physically with a console, or a PC or whatever. That means your first type of connection with the work is your nervous system in your hands. It’s a very muscular and physical response. Which is why so many games are so repetitive. And to go beyond that and to tell a story, that’s really, really… I liked to see ourselves as pioneers, you know? And who knows where it will actually end up.

With this game we’re trying to go further, but it’s not like I have a vision of where it should be and I’m going to take it there. No, I have a vision more of what I can achieve with the tools that I have and the concept that we have. And then once when we’re done with this then we’ll ask, ‘Okay, where can we take it further?’ And in that way it’s more craftsmanship than it is art, because we are so dependent on technology, still. And I think that’s the biggest flaw in the industry today, to rely so much on technology. I think that’s why the indie scene is so fascinating, showing that 2D games have actually aged better than first generation PS one games. I find that fascinating and where that is taking us, who knows.

But in terms of the character, to come back to your question: it will be shades of grey. It won’t be just that very nice world-saving person. And she won’t be that mass murdering…. the only person she kills in the game is that guy in the demo. There is no killing, I wanted to stay away from the generic violence that is flowing into most of today’s video games. There will be shades of grey and we really want to ask moral questions about her, about how she acts.

And we’re also asking questions about social networks, how they will evolve in the future, what do we do with them today. And in the game it’s not just ‘They are the bad corporation’ and you go kick their ass. No, we’re going to ask questions about, ‘Is technology just good for you or is it what you make it? Should we all blindly just upload ourselves onto the Internet?’ This is just material for the gamer to think about. I’m not actually there to tell them, ‘This is the way it is.’ Not at all. But I find it fascinating to build immersive worlds where you can bring that to characters and let them interact with it.

GC:I don’t know how aware you are of the new Tomb Raider, but the most interesting thing about that for me is how Lara actually feels bad about having to kill things – both animals and people. Is there any sense that that sort of thing is easier to portray with a female character?

J-MM:Well, I think so because for us the female protagonist was a no-brainer. We wanted to make a game about memories, about human identity, emotion, and a different kind of cyberpunk. And to us that was a female lead and we couldn’t do it with a male lead. Simple as that.

GC:But why?

J-MM:Because it’s very cliché but women are more sensitive…

GC:I’m glad you said that because I felt like I was stereotyping by talking about this in Tomb Raider, but if that’s what it takes to give video game characters more human emotions then so be it.J-MM:So be it. And again we’re just pioneers and step by step, it’s not going to happen overnight with one single game. And this game will not be perfect, in the same way that Uncharted is not perfect. It’s just another path to go down.

Remember Me – memories are not forever

GC:So in terms of the gameplay, how are things broken down? There seemed to be quite a lot of platforming and perhaps some stealth elements as well? And some sort of hacking device on her arm? And now you’re saying she doesn’t kill at all?

J-MM:Yeah, yeah. She basically overloads their memories and pieces of themselves come flying out of the memory. They’re just there lying on the ground, they’ll get up eventually – they may have forgotten they are married but they’ll get up eventually. She’s a memory hunter and she goes into people’s minds using what we call a hunting glove.

And on top of that comes a device we call the spammer. The spammer basically aggregates the ambient data that is flying around the world, because people are all connected, it gathers that and she is able to shoot that at people. So they get stunned and she can then take advantage of that. She can use it to open doors, to tap into systems and to force real elements as well. And there will be other uses for it as well, that we haven’t talked about yet.

GC:So it interfaces with technology as well as people?

J-MM:Yes, although she’s not a hacker. There is no gameplay of going into a computer system and hacking into it. She basically hacks into people’s memories but basically I didn’t want to use the word hack. Because the whole point of this game is making a cyberpunk game about memories and human identity. Whereas most cyberpunk games are about physical applications and weapon applications, and those games are with male protagonists and we wanted to have something more intimate and we also wanted to have a female protagonist. But there are elements of technology, but they just serve a different purpose.

GC:So she doesn’t use any guns at all?

J-MM:No, no. Guns have been forbidden in Neo-Paris. The only people that are allowed to carry them are senior officials, for official ceremonies, which is why there is one in the memory remix.

GC:How many memory remix sequences are there in the game?

J-MM:There are several of them. They basically are climaxes that come at the end of certain levels. Like how levels in other games are concluded with a boss fight. And boss fights are really those action cliffhangers before the next level. And memory remixes are kind of the big reveal sections of the game.

GC:So the structure is she’s trying to get somewhere, or to someone, and when she gets there she initiates a remix?

J-MM:That’s right, yes.

GC:The graphics were also very impressive, with some very good use of light and shadow. Does that imply a heavy stealth element?

J-MM:There is some very light stealth element, but we’re not a stealth game. You’ll never hear me say that. There are some elements of staying out of a cone of detection, like a beam of light. Going around sweeping the chimneys, or the drones in the street, but that’s all there is.

GC:It seems lazy to say this because I know it’s a French game, but it genuinely did remind me of Beyond Good & Evil. The slightly angular look to Nilin’s features…

J-MM:Hmm, well…

GC:Is that just the French style? Is that how all Frenchmen design video game characters when they’re not meant to be photorealistic?J-MM:[laughs] I think she is pretty realistic really.

GC:She is, but there’s some level of abstraction there. You wouldn’t look at that [points towards a large standee of Nilin] and think that’s a photo.

J-MM:That’s interesting. That would be a better question for our art director, but what I can tell you is that Jade from Beyond Good & Evil was never an inspiration.

GC:It’s not a criticism, it’s just I guess the artists maybe have similar backgrounds and influences. I mean there’s a lot of commonality between the art in French comic books, but nobody’s suggesting those artists are going around copying each other.

J-MM:I guess so. Yes, that’s very interesting. I will mention it to the team.

GC:The one thing that did disappoint me from the demo was some of the translated dialogue and particularly the lack of any French accents, even though you’re set in Paris.

J-MM:Yeah, well Neo-Paris is a very cosmopolitan city.

GC:I knew you were going to say that!

J-MM:[laughs] But it was clearly a conscious decision, because at the beginning we didn’t want to be that French studio doing that French game set in Paris. And we wanted…

GC:But why not? It’s not like there are any others doing that?You’re not afraid that Americans are still sore over Iraq and Freedom Fries are you?Why can’t games be more distinctive and more representative of the place and culture that made them?

J-MM:In the beginning we didn’t want to set in Neo-Paris, but as for the accents – when you’re an independent developer and you’re trying to get published there is some element of ‘Well, there’s Ubisoft but all the other publishers are international so let’s have some English voiceover’. But when it comes out, actually I think the best thing to do is use the French voice track. But I don’t know if it would be zat believe-a-bubble to have a character speak like zis.

GC:Well no, but that’s because you’ve just started talking in a comedy French accent.J-MM:[laughs] But that’s a French accent, that’s the way it is if you don’t try to make it more understandable to an English speaker!

GC:Okay, but just to make sure we don’t end on a sour note, how do you want this game to change the industry? What kind of influence do you want your company to have?J-MM:I would like it to prove that games can be, and even triple-A games can be, content-orientated more than pure production values-orientated. I designed this game in a way that it really had multiple layers in it, in the same way that a great movie had several layers of entry points into it for different people.

So I really wanted to have this kind of action sci-fi thriller at the bottom, that everyone could relate to with fighting robots and so on. And I also wanted to have a message about social networks and the more we’re connected to each other the less we’re all bound to each other. And then on top of that I really wanted to illustrate the fact that one idea can change the world. Which is where we crossed paths with Inception and it began to become so easy to pitch the game when Inception came out. And when I was watching the movie I was like, ‘This is surreal, I can see my design documents going through my mind!’

I think that multilayer-ism and that it’s still possible to take risks in the industry is very important. That it’s possible at the end of a console cycle for a publisher like Capcom to invest in new IP. It’s possible to have a female lead character. It’s possible to still have innovation in gameplay, with things like the memory remix. It’s possible to have a French studio that doesn’t just focus on crazy concepts but also on appealing to the wider world. It’s difficult for me to have a focused answer on that one because we’re aiming for so many things.

GC:That’s excellent, thank you very much.

J-MM:Thank you, that was a pleasure. Very good.Formats: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PCPublisher: CapcomDeveloper: Dontnod EntertainmentRelease Date: May 2013